bodner089

The Regional and Branch Campus Administrators conference was held at Longboat Key, near Sarasota, FL, last month. The conference venue has to be one of the nicest anywhere, and the conference continues to provide an outstanding opportunity to meet people who help lead branch campuses of various types. Since the conference, I have been thinking about a couple of things that made a strong impression on me. First, and even acknowledging what I have written in the past, I was struck by the incredible variety of branch campus models or "types" around the country. The campus deans from Ohio University provided a session that allowed the audience to respond to various questions about branch governance and other matters. Everyone seemed to enjoy the session, but what grabbed my attention was how difficult it is even to ask questions that make sense to everyone. With so many community college branches, upperdivision/graduate branches, two-year feeder university branches, and branches ...

Extending the discussion from my previous post, it seems to me that online education will change the nature of competition in higher education. We are approaching a tipping point, where the quality of online learning, new business/financial models, and the comfort level that prospective students feel will make traditional face-to-face classes less attractive, at least for many adult learners. Recently, I saw a study of adult learners in Ohio, who had previously attended a higher education institution, but not graduated, and were not currently enrolled. These individuals, age 35 or younger, overwhelmingly preferred online or strongly blended/hybrid courses, as an attraction for returning to school. Less than 8% of the responders indicated that they would prefer a traditional campus-based program delivery. Although I hope that branch campuses will be more responsive than many other types of institutions to this audience, I also foresee new providers coming along and profoundly changing t...

Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma , has written some of the most interesting things I've seen about innovation and how it affects organizations of all types. I'd like to draw on a couple of points from a book he co-authored, called Seeing What's Next . It includes a chapter called Disruptive Diplomas that addresses how innovation might create threats for higher education. Although the authors do not speak directly to branch campuses, the threats they identify could apply across the board. A key concept in Christensen's work is the distinction between sustaining and disruptive technologies. I won't try to get into details about the distinction here, but suffice it to say that existing organizations tend to make good adjustments to developments in sustaining technology, but have trouble adjusting to disruptive technologies. One reason is that disruptive technologies may not be recognized for their potential to develop into a dominant technolog...

The 2008 NABCA conference was held in Columbus, Ohio, April 23-25. We at Ohio University were pleased to host the meeting. From all I heard, the program was very well received, with sessions well attended and topics that were timely. The program committee, chaired by Brenda Harms, did a great job. I was honored to serve as conference chair, and people enjoyed the venue, the opportunity to tour our Pickerington Center, and the amenities of the hotel. All of that is actually a tribute to the work of Pat Davidson, our conference manager and a member of our University Outreach staff. Pat's attention to detail and to great service, was very much appreciated. Christine Quinn, from Winona State University, completed an exceptional year as NABCA president. Through Christine's leadership, we developed a reasonable and positive work plan, leading to real progress toward the further development of this important organization. Ken Shaw, from Florida State University, Panama City, is our ne...

In this post, I want to share my perspective on the development of branch campuses at Ohio University. It draws on a piece I wrote a few years ago for a book celebrating our bicentennial, and it illustrates how the context in which a university views its mission can impact creation and development of branches. Our branches developed out of a long-standing commitment to serve a rural, under-educated region of Ohio. Founded in 1804, the University began outreach programs in a systematic way by creating an "extension division," in 1909. The division offered classes in scores of locations (more than 70) around rural Southeastern Ohio. My favorite story of those days is that we actually hired three faculty members in 1914, who spent their week (Monday morning through Saturday morning) traveling by train and street car to deliver courses in a number of towns. In 1924, we added to the live courses by becoming the only public university in Ohio to offer correspondence courses. Corres...

Within day-to-day operations, some say that a branch campus chief administrative officer (CAO) is in a role that is similar to that of a small college president. At the sort of branch that I described as an "idealized" branch, the CAO is probably overseeing faculty matters, student services, a physical plant operation, a meaningfully large budget, community relations, and some version of alumni affairs. In the communities I know best, the CAO is respected as a community leader, spending much of his or her time with business people who may well carry the title of president, as well as interacting routinely with political leaders in the community and, perhaps, at the state level. On the other hand, a branch CAO is not considered to be the equivalent of a president by people at the main campus. Trustees, executive officers (especially including the institutions president), and faculty leadership, not to mention college deans and (probably) academic department heads would more l...

Just as I believe that serving as a branch campus faculty member was a better fit and opportunity for me, than serving as a main campus faculty member might have been, I also believe there were aspects of branch campus administration that were satisfying in ways that my main campus colleagues are less likely to experience. I first came into administration as an acting associate dean on the Mansfield Campus of Ohio State University. I had been on the faculty for more than ten years, and when asked to serve, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some hands on "management" experience, to support my teaching and consulting. Circumstances at the time suggested that the appointment might last about two years, and I figured that was enough time to learn some things, then get back to my "real" career. It could be that I'm just attracted to new roles, but I had the same experience with administration that I had when I discovered research, as an undergraduate,...